They'll Surely Be 'Angered'

Here's something that's sure to get the mullah's and acolyte's knickers in a knot. All of the whining, protests and fatwa or two that have come about since Salman Rushdie was knighted five days ago, has had a chilling effect: Rushdie's book, The Satanic Verses, published in 1988, has experienced a growth in sales.

Home secretary defends Rushdie knighthood
John Reid today insisted Britain stood by the knighthood awarded to Salman Rushdie and would not apologise for the honour, despite anger in some Muslim countries.

The issue was "sensitive", the home secretary said following a speech in New York, but the protection of people's right to express their opinions in literature, argument and politics was "of overriding value to our society".

The British high commissioner in Islamabad, Robert Brinkley, has expressed concern to Pakistan's government over remarks supposedly made by the minister for religious affairs, Mohammed Ejaz ul-Haq, which appeared to justify suicide bombings as a response to the knighthood.

A Foreign Office spokeswoman said Mr Brinkley had expressed "deep concern about what the minister of religious affairs is reported to have said".

Iran has also stepped up protests over the a knighthood for Rushdie, whose 1988 novel The Satanic Verses prompted a fatwa calling for his assassination.

Iran's state radio reported today that 221 of the country's 290 MPs signed a statement condemning Rushdie's knighthood.

Yesterday Iran's foreign ministry summoned the British ambassador to complain about the award.

An Iranian foreign ministry official, Ebrahim Rahimpour, told the ambassador, Geoffrey Adams, that the decision to award the honour to the author was a "provocative act" that had angered Muslims, according to the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency.

Speaking in New York, Mr Reid noted that some Christians were angered by film The Life of Brian, and some Jewish people were upset when Mel Gibson made films, but that this had to be tolerated.

"We have a set of values that accords people honours for their contribution to literature even if we don't agree with their point of view," he said. "That's our way and that's what we stand by."

He added: "We have very strong laws about promoting racial intolerance.

It sure would be nice if these PC nitwits would get it through their heads that Islam, like any other relgion (or anti-religion), is not a race.

It isn't a free-for-all. We've thought very carefully about it.

"But we have a right to express opinions, and a tolerance of other people's point of view, and we don't apologise for that."

Rushdie went into hiding for a decade after Iran's late spiritual leader, Ayatollah Khomeini, issued a fatwa in 1989 calling for the author's assassination. The Iranian government distanced itself from the fatwa in 1998, declaring that it would not support the edict, but could not rescind it. He received the knighthood for services to literature in the Queen's birthday honours list published on Saturday.

Ahh, Khomeini, the spiritual leader. Here's a classic example of Khomeini's spiritual leadership.

The row over the honour has done no harm to sales of The Satanic Verses, nearly 20 years after it was first published in 1988.

The book was today ranked 12th in UK book sales by Amazon. It is the only book in the top rankings not published very recently.

On the US version of Amazon the book ranked 73rd.

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